Reverend Tom Willis: Real Tales Of Exorcisms

Reverend Tom Willis is said to be the UK’s leading exorcist. After tackling hundreds of cases in the last 50 years, who can dispute that title?
In his 50 years of experience, the reverend assures us that many of the cases that he has seen involve hoaxes or those who suffer from mental illnesses. However, there are those cases in which supernatural happenings took place that has left him believing in the paranormal.

It has been dismissed by sceptics who believe it is the stuff of Hollywood horror movies rather than real life.

But when Pope Francis stopped to lay hands on a disabled boy last week some believe he shone a new light on the mysterious world of exorcism.

And while many people believe it has no place in modern society, there are still ministers across Britain who insist that they are casting out evil spirits.

Reverend Tom Willis is the UK’s leading exorcist – a man who has been called in to tackle poltergeists and the possessed for the past 50 years.

In a lifetime dealing with the supernatural, he says he has seen things that cannot be explained, including ornaments flying through walls and bodiless voices calling to him from beyond the grave.

And at the age of 82, the Church of England minister is still in demand around the world from people who want his help to destroy what they believe are evil spirits.

His expertise is so valued in Britain that even the police call on him.

Promotional poster for “The Exorcist”

Rev Willis says: “The people who come to me are really frightened. I’ve even had atheists tell me, ‘I don’t believe in ghosts but I can’t explain what is happening’.”

He adds: “I always say, ‘you don’t get possessed just walking to the supermarket’. You have to look for a reason why it should have happened. Often, people have dabbled quite strongly in evil.”

Rev Willis found his spooky vocation while working as a minister in York.

When a parishioner asked for help dealing with her haunted house – something Rev Willis says is more common than people think – he discovered he had a gift for restoring peace.

Since then he’s found himself in some strange and scary situations – including the time he helped rid a medium of a powerful evil spirit.

Rev Willis says the man approached him after giving a speech about the supernatural.

The stranger kept tapping his shoulder and talking to an invisible companion. Rev Willis was unsure if the medium was pretending… until the conversation took an unexpected turn.

The reverend says: “When I mentioned the blood of Christ, his voice changed. He said, ‘don’t talk about that’ and started shaking and rubbing himself. At that point I thought ‘you really have got something evil in you’.”

Rev Willis is part of the international exorcist community and has heard some startling stories on his travels. Like the time one of his colleagues was asked to perform an exorcism in India on a girl who couldn’t speak.

“The colleague told me that when he blessed her she began to shake,” he explains. “He asked the girl what her name was and although she didn’t usually talk, a weird voice said, ‘I am stubbornness’.

“He commanded the evil to depart and she fell back. He went on down the line, blessing people. Then when he looked back she had started singing hymns in her normal language.”

Rev Willis is often called on to rid a haunted house of ghosts.

He had a particularly chilling experience when he went to the home of a policeman who feared that his home had become possessed.

As Rev Willis sat with the officer and his family, ornaments suddenly started to move.

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” he says.

“After 10 minutes the father said, ‘the dog ornament has gone again’. I looked at the mantelpiece and it had.

Then I heard a thump in the kitchen and said ‘nobody move’. I went to take a look and the ornament was there on the kitchen floor. It had gone right through a brick wall.”

I'm a writer, a runner, and a hell of a coffee drinker residing in Los Angeles.
I'm currently working on a book about Doris Bither and her terrifying account of a haunting in Culver City, California. The case was dubbed "The Entity" and it stands to be one of the most controversial cases ever to be studied by parapsychologists.

…just wondering, if it is unethical to bring in hidden video cameras during exorcisms. To capture moving things, not peoples.

LaszloZoltan

I think it would be seen to be unethical to demonstrate these stories are just that- stories. A man may be a priest, for whatever that means it does not mean he is incapable of any vice

David Eggleston

Since demonic possession is treated as insanity by the psychiatric community, it is probably impossible to get informed consent to film an exorcism. I know that folks have done it, but I’d be leery of filming, from a legal perspective.